Structural adhering construction



Feb. 25, 1969 TRIPLETT STRUCTURAL ADHERING qoNsTRu ACTION Filed July 24, 1967 FIG. 2

IINVENTIOR. LEE TRIPLETT v 1 5 ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,429,506 STRUCTURAL ADHERING CONSTRUCTION Lee Triplett, 2878 South 8600 West, Magna, Utah 84044 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 517,524,

Dec. 27, 1965, now Patent No. 3,333,873. This application July 24, 1967, Ser. No. 655,613 US. Cl. 238-371 8 Claims Int. Cl. E01b 9/00, 13/00, 21/04 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention comprises an attachment construction and also an attachment and railroad tie combination wherein rails can be easily and releasably secured to their railroad tie bed. In particular, a bridge plate is used with a resilient sleeve means of the bolt construction being inserted into an appropriate, predrilled aperture in the tie. Tightening down of the bolt not only clamps the rail, by virtue of the bridge construction, but also compresses outwardly a resilient sleeve of the bolt construction within the tie so as to accomplish a friction securement thereto.

In a preferred form of the invention a novel hollow tie of light-weight construction is utilized, with the tie incorporating sleeves suitable for receiving the compression sleeves, bolt attachment construction of the invention. Where wood ties are to be used the invention supplies a split-sleeve anchor, to be used in conjunction with the resilient compression sleeves, for enabling the releasable securement of the bolt construction and rail to a designated tie.

The present invention is a continuation-in-part of the inventors United States Patent No. 3,333,873, under issuance date of Aug. 1, 1967.

The present invention relates to rails and railroad ties and, more particularly, to a new and improved manner of securing the railroad track rails to their ties.

In the past, solid Wood ties have been used to form the support bed for parallel railroad tracks. The customary manner of securing the tracks to the rails is to drive long-headed spikes on either side of the rail such that the spike edges engage the base flange of the rail. This method has been used for Well over one-hundred years and is still in use.

A frequent, unfortunate occurrence is that the spikes often loosen within their holes, causing a loosening of the track upon the ties. Additionally, in a number of mining operations it becomes imperative to be able to move the tracks very easily and conveniently and re-install the track on the same ties. Thus far, to the inventors knowledge,

there has been no suitable manner of accomplishing this I objective.

Accordingly, a principal object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved attachment means for securing tracks to the underlying ties.

An additional object is to provide a railroad track and tie combination which can be easily disassembled for re-location and re-assembly in a very convenient manner.

An additional object is to provide a securement bridge, bolt attachment construction which is ideally suited for securing ties to their supporting rails.

An additional object is to provide a plate and bolt assembly construction for preliminary positioning rails properly and for securing them to the ties proper.

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The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The present invention, both as to its organization and manner of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary, isometric view of a section of railroad tracks incorporating the principles of the present invention at one of the tie connections thereof.

FIGURE 2 is a transverse vertical section taken along the line 22 in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the right hand portion, a representative portion, of the structure as shown in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary, section view of a portion of the securement structure wherein a split anchoring sleeve is used to facilitate the practicing of the invention.

FIGURE 5 is a partially exploded, perspective view of a representative tie and rail section construction wherein the latter is secured to the new tie of the invention in the manner indicated.

FIGURE 6 is a transverse, vertical section taken along the lines 66 in FIGURE 5.

In FIGURE 1 reduced sections of a pair of rails, 10 and 11, are shown to be mounted over transversely disposed rail ties 12. Rail ties 12 may be the conventional Wooden ties as are customarily used for laying railroad tracks.

Disposed beneath each of the rails is a respective support strap or support plate 13. Plate 13 is preferably provided with a pair of transversely extending, spaced, stop protuberances 14 between and against which the base 15 of a respective rail is seated. The support plate 13 likewise preferably includes recesses 17 for receiving the pin-like extensions 18 of respective bridge plates 19. The bridges or bridge plates 19, as shown in FIGURE 3, each include a central aperture 20 for receiving a threaded member such as bolt 21. It will be noted with respect to FIGURES 2 and 3 that each of the bridge members 19 include a downwardly canted, inner-flange 22 and also a downwardly directed outer-flange 23 is provided the pin protuberance 17. When the threaded member or bolt 21 is tightened down completely, the shoulder 24, of course, comes in thrusting engagement with the upper surface 25 of support plate 15.

Continuing with a consideration of the structure, it will be seen that there is provided a resilient washer 2 5, immediately beneath the respective bridge plates. Disposed between each washer 25 is a headed support bushing 27, as seen in FIGURE 3.

Likewise disposed upon bolt 21 are the resilient, friction expansion sleeves 28 and 29 which are spaced apart by a spacer 30, the latter has something of an H configuration in its longitudinal cross-section as illustrated in FIGURE 3. The center of spacer 30 is provided with a relief area 31. This relief area 31 between the spacer and wall W of bore 32 (an anchor accepting aperture) is to provide, on sleeve compression, for the reception of any interior edge portions of the resilient sleeves 28 and 29 as might flow past the outer portions of the spacer into this open area. Upper and lower portions of the spacer provide a pinching securement for extruded portions of the resilient sleeves.

The securement of the rails is accomplished as follows. The bridge member 19, bolt 21, and the attachments as shown in FIGURE 3, are all preliminarily assembled together, with retainer nut 33 (having integral bearing washer portion 34) being tightened down slightly to accomplish a preliminary compression loading of the bolt. The bolt assembly and bridge are next positioned as seen in FIGURE 3 such that the centering and filler bushing or plate insert 27 nestles in aperture 35 of the support strap or plate. A tightening down of the bolt 21, as by means of a wrench, causes a compression loading of the resilient sleeves 28 and 29. This is so since the contact of retainer nut 33 and its integral worker with resilient sleeve 29 will be sufiicient, as to the frictional forces present thereat, such that the metal-to-metal contact as between washer 25 and the head 21' of bolt 21 will not deter, upon the tightening down of the bolt, a simultaneous fixing and compression loading of resilient sleeves 28 and 29. This compression loading or squeezing of the resilient sleeves causes a gripping action as between resilient sleeves and the wall W of the tie bore to take effect and this simultaneously with a thrusting lowering of the bridge member. This latter feature thrustingly engages and sucurely seats the base of the rail within its seat S as the pin protuberance 17 gradually descends into its pin receiving aperture until shoulder 24 comes in thrusting contact with the upper surface 25 of plate 13.

As seen in FIGURE 2, a like assembly is made up and inserted in another anchor receiving bore or aperture 32' on the opposite side of the rail. The tightening down of the left hand bolt sturtcure as well, accomplishes a very tight securement of the rail to the tie.

In an optional form of the invention where wood ties are used, it will be permissible to incorporate an exteriorly toothed, split sleeve 40 having a roughened inner surface, and a multiplicity of exterior tooths 42. In such a construction, the tightening of the bolt 21 will cause an outward expansion of the resilient friction sleeves 28 and 29 and, correspondingly, an outward opening of the split sleeve as it is accompanied by the simultaneous opening of slit 41. The compression loading of the resilient sleeves against the split sleeve 40 serves to imbed the tooth-like protuberances 42' into the wall area of the wood tie so that a maximum gripping action is obtained.

Where the sleeve insert is made of a thin spring steel material, then reduction in the compression loading of the nut assembly and of its resilient sleeves will allow the split sleeve to contract and thus to be easily withdrawn from the tie aperture.

When it is desired to release the rail from the ties, it is simply necessary only to turn the bolts in an opposite direction so as to remove the compression loading from the resilient sleeves 28 and 29. This permits the bolt assemblies and bridge to be easily withdrawn so as to free the rail and tie for independent movement.

FIGURES and 6 illustrate another combination of the invention wherein a novel tie is used with the construction. The tie takes the form of a hollow tie member 42, preferably extruded and made of structural steel, which hollow tie member has welded to its ends a respective end plate 43. The upper portion 44 is counter-bored at 45 and apertured at 46 so that a structural flanged tube 47 may be positioned as indicated in FIGURE 6. The enlarged head 48 of tube 47 fits into the counter-bored area at 45 and may be pressed, sweated, or welded in place as is appropriate. The entire assembly is then supplied an outer transite coating, made of cement and asbestos. The transite case is identified at 49 and is usually provided metal materials to prevent deterioration and corrosion.

The tubes 47 serve the purpose not only of receiving the nut assemblies including the resilient sleeves 28 and 29, as seen in FIGURE 5, but also provides vertical support for the structural square tubing of the tie, to further aid in preventing collapse thereof and over-loading. Of course, other types of support retainer tubes may be included, as for example completely within the hollow tie member, to aid in strengthening the hollow tie construction.

The tie of FIGURES 5 and 6, even though having a primarily structural member preferably made of steel, will nonetheless be much lighter and less bulky than those heavy wood ties which are greatly used. The transite and the interiorly contained vertical tubes not only facilitate rail attachment but also pre-stresses the ties vertically.

Regardless of whether a wood tie or the tie for FIG- URES 5 and 6 is chosen for use, the invention is ideally suited to removal and replacement of ties, rails, and so forth. This is because of the essential invention of providing a bolt, resilient sleeve assembly in combination with the bridge plate, to insure that a rail can be very securely fastened down to its ties and yet, can be immediately released and removed through a couple of turns of a torque wrench upon the bolt constructions indicated.

I claim:

1. In combination, a railroad tie having an upper side, a track rail having a base flange and disposed transversely over said railroad tie, said railroad tie including aperture means contiguous with said upper side, resilient, elastomeric, compressible, friction lock, expansion means disposed within said aperture means, plate means disposed over said tie and also overlapping said rail base flange, and attachment means engaging said expansion means and also said plate means for compression loading and thereby radially expanding said expansion means within said aperture means to produce a friction lock thereat and also axially compressing said expansion means to rele'asably, clampingly, and preloadingly secure said plate means against said base flange.

2. Structure according to claim 1 wherein said railroad tie is hollow and is provided with tubular means forming said aperture means and extending transversely within said tie.

3. Structure according to claim 1 wherein said railroad tie comprises a hollow structural member, tubular means frictionally disposed within and affixed to said hollow structural member and forming said aperture means, and a protective coat-ing comprised of asbestos and cement secured to the outer surface of said structural member.

4. Structure according to claim 1 wherein said attachment means comprises a bolt having a head disposed above said late means and a nut disposed on the opposite side of and frictionally engaging said resilient expansion means.

5. Structure according to claim 1 wherein said attachment means include filler means disposed between said plate and said resilient means for retaining the disposition of the latter.

6. Structure according to claim 1 wherein said combination includes a positioning plate disposed between said rail and said tie, said rail having oppositely extending base flanges, said aperture means being disposed on both sides of said rail, and said positioning plate including aligned aperture means disposed on both sides of said rail and aligned with said aperture means within said tie, said positioning plate including upstanding, transverse stop means mutually forming a cradle seat for said rail, resilient, elastomeric, compressible, friction lock expansion means disposed within respective ones of said aperture means, a pair of bridge plate means disposed over said support plate and overlapping corresponding ones of the base flanges of said rail, and plural attachment means respectively engaging respective ones of said expansion means and also said plate means for compression loading said expansion means within their apertures and thereby expanding said expansion means within said aperture means to produce a friction lock thereat and also to releasably, clampingly, and preloadingly secure said bridge plate means against opposite ones of said base flanges of said rail.

7. In combination, a railroad tie comprising a hollow structural member provided with upper aperture means, tubular means disposed within and secured to said hollow structural member and communicating with said upper aperture means, and a corrosion-resistant coating encasing said hollow structural member such as to leave said upper aperture means accessible; track means disposed transversely across said railroad tie; and means for clamping said track means to said tie, said clamping means including axially compressible retention means releasably secured to and within said tubular means.

8. Structure according to claim 7 wherein said retention means includes resilient, elastomeric frictionlock means and attachment means for compression loading said resilient means within said tubular means to provide a friction-lock thereat.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/ 1887 Taylor 238-84 3/1910 Case 238-371 1/1911 Boogher 238-371 8/1911 Forsyth 23 8-371 7/1914 Johnson 238-371 4/ 1923 Cutting 238-371 10/1955 Jones 238-371 l/ 1957 Gronlund 238-283 1/ 1962 Meier 238-371 6/ 1965 Moses 238-371 4/ 1966 Pineau 23 8-349 U.S. Cl. X.R. 

